Foreign markets plunge

Stocks and the U.S. dollar plunged and safe-haven bonds soared on Tuesday after two planes crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and a further plane crashed next to the Pentagon in Washington D.C. in apparantly deliberate attacks.

Investors, seeking safe havens in a time of uncertainty, drove the prices of gold and oil and the Swiss franc sharply higher in the wake of the incidents.

Investors were driven to safe haven assets both by fear of a sustained campaign against U.S. targets and concern that the attacks may push the U.S. into full-blown recession.

"If the U.S. was on the brink of recession, and may have avoided it before, now they will not avoid it," said Adrian Jarvis, head of strategy at Morley Fund Management in London, drawing a parallel with the Gulf War in 1990 which he said tipped the U.S. into recession a decade ago.

In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 5.7 percent in its biggest one-day fall since the crash of October 1987, wiping $98 billion off the value of shares.

Here is how other major stock markets outside the United States ended today.

FRANKFURT - The DAX suffered its biggest one-day fall ever, thumped to levels not seen for almost three years as attacks on key buildings in New York and Washington sent a shockwave across global markets.

The DAX closed at points at 4,273.53 points, down 396.6 or 8.49 percent.

PARIS - Shares plunged to their lowest level since March 1999 after a series of deadly suspected terrorist attacks against the United States rocked equity markets around the globe.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 0.49 percent, or 51.04 points, to 10,417.36, but is still down nearly 31 percent this year.

TOKYO - Stocks rebounded from 17-year lows after the U.S. Nasdaqs first gain in five sessions prompted investors to pick up battered high-tech issues.

The benchmark Nikkei average closed 97.26 points or 0.95 percent higher at 10,292.95.

SYDNEY - Stocks closed flat as steep gains by Qantas Airways, which gave the market a modest lift for much of the day, were narrowly overtaken by robust profit-taking in National Australia Bank

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index finished 0.6 points, or 0.02 percent, softer at 3,242.0, below its intraday high of 3,256.6.

JOHANNESBURG - Shares tumbled at the close in line with a plunge in global markets after two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York and another crashed into or near the Pentagon in Washington.

Johannesburgs benchmark slid 2.29 percent or 198.7 points to close at 8,459.3 at 1400 GMT, as the all-share futures index tumbled 677 points or more than eight percent to 7,480. The All-Gold index closed at 1206.5 points, up 102.8 or 9.31 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 7001.1 points, down 271.4 or 3.73 percent.